Matt Lauer can keep New Zealand ranch, despite inquiry into conduct

WELLINGTON, New Zealand — Matt Lauer, the former “Today” show co-host who lost his job over sexual misconduct allegations, will be allowed to keep his ranch in New Zealand, after a government agency said Friday it did not have sufficient evidence he had breached a good-character test for foreign property buyers.

But a spokeswoman for the Overseas Investment Office, which started an investigation after Lauer’s firing in November into his fitness to hold the lease of the 16,000-acre ranch, said it would continue to “monitor the matter” and could revisit the case “should further information come to light.”

Lisa Barrett, the spokeswoman, added that the agency “did not condone the inappropriate way” that Lauer had behaved while at “Today,” the long-running New York-based morning news program on NBC.

Lauer, who had been a co-host at “Today” for two decades, was fired after a colleague complained about inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace. A subsequent internal review found that other women had lodged complaints about Lauer’s behavior.

Along with his wife, Annette Lauer, Matt Lauer bought the lease to Hunter Valley Station, a ranch off the shore of Lake Hawea in New Zealand’s picturesque South Island, through a New Zealand-based company last year. Local news reports put the price at $9.2 million.

At the time, Lauer would have passed a good-character test required for foreign buyers who are purchasing large tracts of land. New Zealand’s definition of good character is broad, and officials considering whether Lauer had breached it were allowed to take into account evidence of “offenses or contraventions of the law,” even if a crime had not been committed.